Share and Enjoy

Do you want to have a celebrity look but not spend a lot of money? Tresemmé® and Dollar General have teamed up to provide just that! Create your own unique style and beauty all within a healthy family budget!

I have mentioned before that our oldest daughter heads off to college in less than a year. #Phones4School #CollectiveBias. One of the things on our to-do list is to research cheap wireless plans. We desire to get her set up with a technological life line a.k.a a cell phone when she is away from home. A cell phone will enable her to communicate when she’s out, give her a life line if she gets stranded or if, God forbid, she runs into trouble. We also want her to have a phone for when she starts driving by herself in a few months.

My daughter was away at her cousin’s house all weekend. It was fun to surprise her with a trip to the store to buy her an early college present. We purchased Alcatel One Touch Fierce ($99.88) for $34.88/month, an unlimited talk text and data/web plan with Walmart’s Family Mobile (T-Mobile is the carrier), plus $25 for the starter kit. We love the unlimited aspect of this plan. It is also affordable for a college student on a limited budget. Bobbie is already figuring on paying for her phone herself. Of course, we are not complaining!

On the way home in the car she was setting up her calendar, which she is going to need to keep track of classes, assignments, exams and activities while she is away in college. She is obviously very excited to have her own smart phone! Other features she likes are the graphics. She is also looking for apps for homework, budgeting and exercising. She is having fun learning her way around her new phone.

The Alcatel One Touch Phone is perfect for college students because it is not only portable but it is a smart phone with all the bells an whistles – talk, text, web/data, 4G capability, camera and a 4.5″ touch screen. The monthly plans are budget friendly for both students and families.

Share and Enjoy

Back to School with CampusBookRentals.com

Are you headed back to college or know of someone who is? College students should know about the perks of renting textbooks from CampusBookRentals.com I am sure my daughter will want to look into this for next year when she goes off to college.

CampusBookRentals.com RentBack Program

CampusBookRentals.com started a new program, RentBack. RentBack is new initiative that allows students to rent the textbooks they own – to other students… which is an awesome opportunity for them to make 2-4x more money compared to what they’d make through buyback options! Buyback is selling their books back at the end of the semester.

Isn’t that a great idea?! Check out this CampusBookRentals.com RentBack video:

I have always been a part of our finances from budgeting, saving, spending and investing (what little investing we’ve done). Yet I wouldn’t say that I was completely confidence in my financial literacy. Strange isn’t it? It was really interesting reading through the guide Financial Literacy and the Gender Gap.

Financial Literacy Guide for Women

In this financial literacy guide it states that women on average will live five years longer then men, which I knew because I have a mother, mother-in-law, an aunt, an aunt by marriage who are all widows. At one point in my life (around 2010) I had seven widows in my life and knew I’d probably end up in the same position later in life. That’s when I started talking to my husband about how we’d survive if anything happened to him now that we are getting older. I’m entering my mid-40’s and he’ll be 50 in less than two years. We are still working on our financial health… since things don’t always go as planned and unemployment threw us for a loop twice in the last six years.

Three Tips from the Financial Literacy Guide for Women

It made me feel good that the three tips given in the guide are things we are doing and working towards. Here are those tips:

1. Organize your financial paper work.

2. Track your income and spending.

3. Create a savings and investment plan.

At the end of the four page guide it tells you how to create a budget. I use to live by a budget pretty strictly, now not so much. I know we need to get back to budgeting as we work towards stabilizing our finances and I learn to become more confident in my own financial literacy.

Share and Enjoy

I am entering a new phase of parenting in that I have a child looking at colleges! Very weird for me! Bobbie is doing all the research for college requirements, SATs, applications, etc. U.S. News & World Report provides college rankings every year. I thought their new Best Colleges 2014 book would be helpful to my daughter as she narrows down her college choices.

About Best Colleges 2014

Here are four things Bobbie took from the book and the rest of the post is basically written by her, not me:

• It provides information on colleges all across the United States for students of all backgrounds and interests.

• Gives advice for students who don’t have straight A’s and encouragement and support for getting into college.

• Provides a checklist for preparing for college, which she thought was really helpful.

• It offers information on everything from the application process, getting financial aid, to finding the right school.

Best Colleges 2014 was very helpful and gives you a good idea of what you need to do to prepare for college, as well as offering encouragement and advice from high school students who have already gone through the college process.

The checklist provides a detailed step-by-step list of everything you need to do starting at 9th grade and ending with acceptance into college.

They didn’t limit the advice to students seeking to gain entrance to an Ivy League college; they had several sections dedicated to helping B- students get into a great college.

The sections on gaining financial aid were incredibly helpful and something we definitely need help with in knowing how to apply for the different financial help available to us.

If you would like to pick up a copy of Best Colleges 2014 , use the following code SCHOOL25 to receive a discount!

Share and Enjoy

You all know we are on this farming journey. Well, it is not yet a profitable venture, so we try to conserve, save and reuse. Someone suggested a DIY goat stall from wood pallets. Usually wood pallets are easy enough to find and many times are even free. Gotta love free stuff! There’s a subdivision not far from us on a busy road, which we pass all the time. One house has had a pile of wood pallets there for what seems like years. My husband decided to drop buy and ask if he could have some….just a few days before the goats were due to arrive home! To our delight the man said yes and gave them to us for free! I don’t remember how many pallets my husband and son brought home but they’ve built two stalls so far and have a couple more yet to build. These photos are not the greatest since our barn is so dark but it gives you and idea of how hubby did it. It was our oldest son’s idea to have the goat stall gate swing two ways to save on building another gate.

We just found another source for free wood pallets and we are hoping they still have some left! With the warmer weather coming this weekend (we hope!) it would be nice to get a little pasture fenced off for the goats, another stall done for the sheep and ?????

Share and Enjoy

This is a sponsored post. I am a Kmart blogger, though all opinions are my own.

You’ll have fun watching this mash-up of customers doing the Kmart Layaway Dance! Dare we say it’s the latest dance craze? I know it caught my sons’ attention as they headed to bed! If you’re wondering what it is about Kmart Layaway that makes people spontaneously breakout in catchy dance moves, you should probably keep reading this. At Kmart, Layaway doesn’t start and end with the holidays. You can use Kmart Layaway all year round for celebrations such as birthdays, re-decorating or baby gifts. In addition, Kmart Layaway is available online and in stores. It’s simple: pick out the times you want, start with a down payment, make payments every two weeks (online or in store) and take your items home with you after your final payment (cue: Layaway dance)! Pro tip: Remember to give yourself plenty of time before you need the item, most Layaway contracts last about 8 weeks, so planning ahead is key! Plus, Shop Your Way Members get points on every Layaway purchase and exclusive Layaway offers.

Kmart Layaway Dance Video

Have an item in mind you’d like to put on Layaway? You know it’s about that time to start thinking grills and patio furniture! Get ready to practice your dance moves because you’re going to want to break out in a Layaway dance too! http://bit.ly/1hqSlD8

Share and Enjoy

“This is a sponsored post. I am a Sears blogger, though all opinions are my own.”

Sears Shop Your Way Personal Shopper

Do you wish you had a bigger Christmas budget? I think we all do, right? Sears and Kmart have created some interesting reasons to become a Personal Shopper. What’s great about it is you can earn commission to put towards your holiday budget on every qualifying purchase your family and friends make, plus you will the satisfaction of helping others with your shopping expertise. Since the season for giving is now, Shop Your Way is awarding its Personal Shoppers with more chances for a bigger commission. You can earn up to 5% in commission just by gaining more clients, reaching sales numbers, following new brands on Shop Your Way, sending client invitees and more. If you think you don’t have what it takes to become a Personal Shopper, you’re probably wrong. If you find yourself giving advice often, enjoy making connections and have an entrepreneurial spirit, Personal Shopper would be a great fit for your lifestyle. Your success awaits: http://syw.co/1cwBkCu. Follow @ShopYourWay and hashtag #PersonalShopper on Twitter.

Share and Enjoy

Most of you know we are going through a season of unemployment since my husband lost his job at the end of August. This is his second job loss in five and a half years. It is stretching to say the least to see how we manage to pay bills and get food on the table. The amazing thing is so far so good. We still have a roof over our heads and meals on the table. Between my husband’s unemployment benefits, my paper route, blogging and other work at home income, we are managing to scrape buy. It’s not without worry, fears or stress though. We call this “faith” stretches.

There’s a new (to me anyways) show on TV, which I have only seen a clip for, but I can relate to these girls who are working hard to make their dreams come true. Have you seen 2 Broke Girls yet? Viewer discretion is advised as this show is rated TV-14.

2 BROKE GIRLS is a comedy about the unlikely friendship that develops between two very different young women who meet waitressing at a diner in trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and form a bond over their dream of one day owning their own successful cupcake business. Only one thing stands in their way – they’re broke. Sarcastic, street-smart Max Black met the sophisticated, school-smart Caroline Channing when the uptown trust fund princess was having a run of bad luck due to her father’s Wall Street scandal, which caused her to lose all her money and forced her to give waitressing a shot. At first, Max sees Caroline as an entitled rich girl, but she’s surprised to find that Caroline has as much substance as she does style. When Caroline discovers Max’s knack for baking amazing cupcakes, she visualizes a lucrative future for them and they begin to save money to reach their start-up money goal of $250,000. As the girls’ cupcake tally expands week-to-week, they become closer to their goal and to each other. At the diner they are surrounded by their offbeat, colorful “work family”: Oleg, an overly flirtatious cook; Earl, a hip 75-year-old cashier; Han, the eager-to-please owner of the diner; and Sophie, the girls’ outrageous upstairs neighbor. As Max and Caroline climb toward their goal, we see that their “smarts” plus their “hearts” might just be the recipe for success.

2 Broke Girls has moved to a NEW TIME – Mondays at 8:30/7:30 c on CBS. Viewer discretion is advised as this show is rated TV-14.